7-Eleven survives hearing, gets La Mesa OK

LA MESA  A 24-hour 7-Eleven convenience store can open near a main gateway to La Mesa, the City Council decided Tuesday after hearing residents concerns that such a store would bring crime, congestion, transients, litter and loitering in addition to Big Gulps and Slurpees.

The proposed 7-Eleven conforms with the zoning for the area and the design is within standards set forth by the city, so the City Council voted 4-1 to approve the store, which would bring the total in La Mesa to eight. Councilwoman Ruth Sterling was opposed.

The council meeting involved a public hearing for ratification of the city’s Design Review Board’s approval of the store on Spring Street.

City Manager Dave Witt said that next step would be for 7-Eleven Inc. to get proper building permits “when they’re ready to.”

For nearly a year, 7-Eleven Inc. has been trying to open up a 2,940-square foot convenience store in a vacant former Shell gas and service station/carwash at Spring Street near Gateside Road and Gateside Way to take the place of a 7-Eleven that recently closed on Palm Avenue. The Spring Street parcel has been unused for more than 10 years, according to Community Development Director Bill Chopyk.

The new store will have a 14-space parking lot as well as a 12-foot wide sidewalk with more than two dozen trees as part of the company's landscape plan. There is no plan to sell gasoline on the premises. There was also no plan for a fence in the back of the store, which is on Gateside Road and Gateside Way.

“The back of my house is on Gateside Way, and I’m concerned about the lack of fencing,” resident Ana Casillas-Calleros said. “We will have people walking into Gateside Way and right across the street into our yard. We had that before with transients camping in our yard... A fence needs to go in.”

In the report laid out for the City Council, eight recommendations from the La Mesa Police Department were provided, based on crime prevention principles.

In February, the design review board by a 5-1 vote approved the new project’s design.

“7-Elevens may be convenient but their suburban locations devalue neighborhoods,” local Realtor Laura Lothian said before the meeting. “There’s a reason no one wants to live next door to a 7-Eleven. Google 7-Eleven and ‘armed’ and ‘robbery’ come right after ‘locations.’ I am pro-business but the businesses have to be a good fit with the community. This neighborhood and 7-Elevens are not a good fit.”

Sterling brought up a City Council resolution from 1987 regarding design excellence, and said she was hoping to see a better look for the 7-Eleven than what the design review board had approved.

“I have looked at 7-Elevens, and this one looks like all the others, simply a strip mall,” Sterling said. “We have an opportunity here, since it is a gateway into our city, we can establish a sense of history... help define our community. Would like to see some La Mesa charm on that entrance. We can do better.”